


Polaris.

by RedStarFiction



Category: Outlander, Outlander & Related Fandoms, Outlander Series - Diana Gabaldon
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-30
Updated: 2017-04-30
Packaged: 2018-10-26 00:07:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 889
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10775328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedStarFiction/pseuds/RedStarFiction





	Polaris.

“I had no idea what it meant to be her husband when we wed. I ken weel enough that she was a strong willed and unusual woman.”

Jamie snorted and swirled the whisky around his glass, eyeing Ian across the rim. They had been speaking of their wives for some time and the fact of Ian being a grown man with a wife still occasionally caught Jamie unawares.

The fire-light accentuated the string of tattooed dots across his nephew’s cheekbones and made the hollow of his throat appear cavernous. His smile wide and full, a smile that he had grown into as he became a man. Jamie wanted to tell him that he looked like his maternal grandfather, Brian Fraser, in the red glow but the words stuck in his throat.

Ian was well past the age where a likeness to a relative was anything other than a passing curiosity and as he had in fact never met his grandsire, Jamie could not really expect Ian to feel the warmth of that recognition in the same way Jamie did. Besides the lad was concentrating on other matters and unlikely to wish the subject changed.

“I ken well enough what it is to be Rachel’s husband, Uncle. She is not perhaps as unusual as Auntie Claire but … she has a certain grit about her all the same.”

“Och your Rachel is as level headed as they come - I mean that wi’ no disrespect to your auntie, but I feel perhaps Rachel has more notion of delicacy in matters dear to her heart.”

Ian beamed, his smile wide and even, teeth glowing in the half-light.

“She’s no’ cursed me, nor threatened to cut my heart out and make me eat it, that is true.”

“Yet.”

Jamie said dryly as he sipped from his tumbler. Ian sipped his own drink and surveyed his uncle openly. It was the sort of intense study that can only be unobtrusive when it comes from someone who one has shared many intimacies with and Jamie sat easily beneath the warm brown gaze.

“Why did ye marry her then? Auntie Claire, I mean. Ye dinna normally do things wi’ out due consideration but Mam told me ye were wed wi’out her even knowing your last name.”

Jamie laughed at that, a fully rich sound that disturbed Adso from his slumber before the quiet settled comfortably around them again.

“As a young man I did many things wi’out due consideration.”

Jamie shook his head at the memory of some of his more reckless endeavors

“and it is true that she didna ken my last name until a wee while before the ceremony but a name is just a thing that others attach to ye. It is no’ something of verra great matter. I loved her and that was enough for me.”

“Passions run high in our family.”

Ian smiled ruefully

“You and Auntie Claire, Grandfather and Grandmother Fraser, Bree and Roger.”

“Your Mam and Da too.”

Jamie said gently and Ian nodded, his smile soft again

“Aye but that was more of a easy love. No one ran across oceans or the barrier of time! No one was swept from a castle. Mam just kissed Da and told him they’d be marrit and he agreed.”

“They had their turbulences and hardships - life after Culloden was harder than ye ken. It would test a marriage, aye?”

Jamie spoke more sharply than he intended to and Ian raised his eyebrows before leaning forward and topping up both drinks from the small decanter beside his seat.

“A ship that sails smooth has a journey as valid as one that weathers a storm, Uncle Jamie. I wouldna deny it. But how does a woman know that ye would weather the gravest of storms for her if ye have never had to? How could Da show Mam? How can I show Rachel?”

Jamie sighed and leaned back in his chair, feeling his back stretch against it, the cloth of his shirt rasping gently against his skin.

“Ye have it wrong Ian, love is not the ship on smooth or troubled waters. Love is the Polaris. It is a fixed point that never waivers and and a guide so that whichever way the storm tosses ye, ye can always right yourself and continue.”

Jamie shrugged at the startled expression on his nephews face. Ian licked his lip and allowed another broad smile to bloom across his face.

“Mam always says ye should ha’ been a poet.”

Jamie chuckled and stood up, placing his glass on the mantel.

“Just be constant, Ian. It is all ye have to do.”

Jamie squeezed the younger man’s shoulder and turned toward the stairs, taking a few steps before turning back

“By the way, ye look like your grandfather tonight. Brian. Ye have his smile and I had never really noticed it before now.”

Ian sat up a little straighter and blinked, taken aback. No one had ever said he looked like anyone besides his Da and that was fine but he had heard so many tales of his grandfather as a lad that it gave his a small joy to think that there was something of the legendary Brian Dubh about him too.

“Oh. Thank ye Uncle Jamie, for telling me.”

“You’re welcome. Good night Ian.”

“Good night.”


End file.
